Roland Berger partners with venture firm e.ventures
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has agreed a strategic alliance with e.ventures, a global venture capitalist company. The cooperation is part of Terra Numerata, a platform launched last year by the management consultancy with the aim of becoming Europe’s digital services hotspot.
"The new cooperation is the perfect fit for our Terra Numerata initiative, which aims to open up new opportunities for our clients and all players in the digital economy in the form of alliances, joint ventures and partnerships," said Charles-Edouard Bouée, CEO of Roland Berger. The German origin consultancy launched Terra Numerata in December last year in response to the growing importance of digital business models and corporate venturing within the technology realm. As part of the initiative – which is co-owned by the highly-successful ‘superincubator’ Rocket Internet – Roland Berger has in recent months been expanding its network of clients, offerings and alliances.
Last week the German-origin consultancy unveiled a new, large partnership with e.ventures, a network with offices in six countries that provides venture capital and support to the globe’s most promising start-ups. Jointly they will be able to “develop innovative products and services that they would not have been able to offer on their own", says Bouée, with the joining of forces “perfectly complementing each other”. Roland Berger will bring in its strategy consulting expertise, client network and extensive capacities for fact-based advisory, while e.ventures will build on its vast expertise in the venture capital business and global network in the start-up world.
Together the firms have also developed and launched a new offering, dubbed the ‘Digital Trend Radar’, a proposition that gives clients in-depth insights into digital developments and potential. "A client will ideally draw on all of the services offered by the cooperation as they go along," comments Egbert Wege, the Partner supervising the cooperation at Roland Berger. He foresees an interchange of bundled services throughout the advisory and support lifecycle, ultimately leading to the successful strategies, funding, and implementation of future-proof business models.
With the move, Roland Berger will also enter the market for venture capital. In the coming months the business advisory will, with the support of e.ventures, launch its own investment fund, which will be geared towards digital business models, and open exclusively to the consultancy's clients.
